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How city living fights the waistband sprawl

Pecs and the city researchers say inner-city slickers are
less likely to be overweight than suburban dwellers.Photo: Domino Postiglione

Ehssan VeiszadehDecember 14, 2008

THE closer you live to the city, the better chance you have of
being trim, a study of Sydney suburbs has found.

University of NSW researchers, in conjunction with the NSW
Department of Health, examined residents in 40 local government
areas across Sydney.

They found those living in the outer suburbs were 30 to 50 per
cent more at risk of being overweight and 40 to 60 per cent less
likely to be physically active than their inner-city
counterparts.

"We set out to replicate other studies that linked urban sprawl
and obesity that were conducted overseas, particularly in the US,
and to see how Sydney compared," said Bin Jalaludin, who led the
study.

Professor Jalaludin said the lack of urban development in more
sparsely populated areas meant people were less encouraged to
walk.

"We hypothesised that areas with greater population density had
more mixed land use and commercial development, which means more
places to walk to," he said.

The study also connected car use in sprawling areas to
obesity.

"It seems that people living in purely residential areas tend to
drive more and we know that people who drive more tend to be more
obese," Professor Jalaludin said.

Anthony Capon, who studies the relationship between the urban
environment and health at the Australian National University,
agrees with the findings. "Today, people living in regional areas
are less likely to walk down the road to a local shop and will more
likely drive longer distances to larger shopping centres,"
Professor Capon said.

The researchers warned local governments and developers of an
urgent need to improve health by promoting aspects of urban
planning in Sydney. "Unless we rethink the way we develop our
cities, to making them more compact and mixed, and also to improve
mass transit with shops and services closer by, we're not going to
be able to convince people to walk and cycle more," Professor Capon
concluded.